It’s no secret that businesses and organizations are embracing video as an important part of their marketing and public relations strategy. I’ve spent more than a decade working with people to create great video content to promote, sell, teach, and entertain. Through this journey I’ve found that there are three secrets to a making a great video that people will talk about and share with others.

Engaging Content
If your content is boring, find a way to make it interesting. Presenting a message that captures your audience is by far the most important thing to keeping people interested in what you have to say. It’s also a lot of work, as many factors will contribute to it being engaging.

Consider your audience. More than likely, they’re busy, distracted, and possibly not keen to watch your video. Strive to make sure your message captures their attention by offering value to them, entertaining in some way, and using language and terminology they’ll understand.

Keeping it short
Nobody ever said “that was a great presentation… if only it was a little longer”. Being concise is very important in video. If you can’t communicate your message quickly, consider how it might be presented differently. Perhaps you could break it into several videos, or offer supplemental materials (a link or PDF download, for instance) that will provide the necessary information? A strong call to action at the end of the video will help ensure that qualified viewers move on to the next step.

It’s often a challenge to focus the content, but well worth it in the end. You don’t want to lose eyeballs because your video was too long. Get to the point, and get out.

Great Music
Music inspires, excites, draws emotion, and can take your video to whole new level. Choosing energetic music is a vital part of creating a video that will be energetic and convey passion. I spend a lot of time choosing music that I feel fits well with a project.

As important as good music is, ensuring it is well timed to the video is equally important. Hitting certain beats with the edit points and graphics, properly timing transitions, and having a solid ending will help build the story you’re telling, excite your viewers, and motivate them to act.

Keeping these three factors in mind when starting a video project will help you create better content and capture more attention, resulting in a better return on your time and financial investment. Of course, there are many components to a great video, but time and again a concise, engaging message set to the right music makes for a great video.

Bio

Adam Hislop is a video producer and owner of Atomic Spark, a production company that helps people communicate their message clearly and effectively. This article is an excerpt from his book, “The Video Book”, a guide to helping organizations produce great video content, due out this fall. Adam can be reached at atomicspark.ca or on twitter @atomicspark.